The city of Bilbao became more crowded last Saturday as the day went on. People were coming from all over the Basque Country and by noon it was impossible to walk around the city center. The main streets surrounding the meeting points from which the demonstration was going to start at 5pm were getting packed as the time got closer. Sare (meaning literally “network” in Basque, a citizen network struggling for the rights of Basque political prisoners) was on its way to achieving the objective of the day.

Twenty-five years ago the Spanish and French governments enforced the policy of dispersal against Basque political prisoners. Since then, and according to the information given by Sare, the family members and friends that visit the these prisoners travel 352,329 km every week, as much as circumnavigating the earth 8.8 times weekly. The policy of dispersal has an average cost of 12,257 euros per family a year and 16 people have died in traffic accidents while going to visit their dear ones. As in past years, there have been massive demonstrations in Bilbao in order to demand respect for the rights of the Basque political prisoners and an end to the policy of dispersal.

This year the demonstration had a different structure. Instead of starting from a square and going down to the City Hall, (a distance of 2 kilometres) it started from both sides and joined together in a middle point between both ends. The families of the political prisoners opened the way in their usual lined structure.

Currently there are around 460 Basque political prisoners in 73 jails in France and Spain. Within this collective, there are members of ETA, pro-independence politicians, trade union members, members of the youth movement and journalists. The Spanish government categorizes the whole lot of them: “everything is ETA”.

Like the organizers had underlined once and again the protagonists were the citizens and the families of the political prisoners. On Saturday those political parties, trade unions, organizations and well known people that had shown their support for the demonstration were kept in a second line.

Among the protagonists there were also key figures in this issue of the dispersal policy applied against the Basque political prisoners. The Mirentxin vans, which week after week drive the families voluntarily to prisons scattered all over France and Spain as a sign of solidarity, were the ones opening the roads of Bilbao too.

Two kilometres of road were packed with citizens. Lots of them didn´t even have the possibility to move at all and following the recommendations of the organizers they just occupied the streets.

It was achieved. Once again thousands of people demanded in silence the repatriation of Basque political prisoners to the Basque Country. As the main slogan stated: Now to the Basque Country! The demonstration was silent as demanded by the organizers, a demand well respected by the participants. Only two slogans followed the whole demonstration the entire way; “Basque prisoners to the Basque Country” and “Bring the Basque political prisoners home.”

While there are many comparisons that can be made with last year's demonstration, where around 130,000 people marched for "human rights, resolution, peace," two stand out among them. Last year's demonstration was firstly prohibited by the Spanish National Court and and as a consequence the PNV (Basque Nationalist Party) ended up supporting the demonstration. Last year in Bilbao, there was a stronger feeling of solidarity and a great amount of euphoria. The support shown towards the Basque political prisoners this year has been strong too, but within a more relaxed environment. This year the PNV hasn't supported the demonstration, saying that last year they did so because of its prohibition.

At the end of the event, Saroi Jauregi and the singer Fermin Muguruza played the roll of presenters. The improvisers Maialen Lujanbio, Igor Elortza and Amets Arzallus sang poems. And the singers “The Aire systers,” Rafa Rueda and Agus Barandiaran sang along with other thousands of people the popular song “Your mother is waiting, so is your father...”

Maite Mangado and Hegoa Arakama, family members of Basque political prisoners, demanded that the rights of the Basque political prisoners as well as those of their family members have to be respected. “Those rights must be respected now! Not tomorrow or the day after! It has to be now because among other reasons this attitude also helps the peace process.” They both outlined that the policy of dispersal is a policy of revenge and that with the support of society, “the wall representing the policy of dispersal will be brought to an end. We call you to walk together towards that end, step by step.” Finally they invited people to join Sare, the network working for the rights of Basque political prisoners.

Light became another protagonist of this demonstration. At the end, thousands of lights were lit in the hands of the participants. The singer Fermin Muguruza and Saroi Jauregi brought the event to a close by stating that “in order to create together a future in which all human rights will be respected, now is the time to ensure that the rights of the Basque political prisoners and their families are respected. All together we will achieve it!”

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MEANWHILE, Argia reports that earlier this week Spanish authorities carried out 16 arrests, including Basque lawyers and those standing in solidarity with the prisoners:

On the morning of Jan. 12 January Guardia Civil officers arrested 16 people (12 Basque Lawyers and four individuals allegedly linked with Herrira). Police searched several premises, including the offices of the Basque Trade Union LAB in Bilbao.

Spanish Media, citing police sources, said that they had been arrested on terrorist membership grounds and fiscal crime (not declaring VAT and not paying social security charges). Three of the lawyers were arrested in Madrid where they were to act as defendants for 19 of a group of 35 individuals taken to trial for their political activity. The court case was suspended, awaiting news on the lawyers.

This operation took place after the huge demonstration on Saturday, Jan. 10, when over 80,000 people took over Bilbao to ask for the end of the dispersal policy and respect for prisoners’ rights. Funds raised during the demonstration were taken for safekeeping into LAB’s office until the money could be counted and taken to banks, which wouldn’t open until Monday morning.

But LAB’s Secretary General Ainhoa Etxaide and Sare denounced that those funds (about 90,000 euros) had been seized by the Civil Guard. In fact, the Home Affairs Ministry released photos showing how the military officers counted coins and notes, and the took the money out of LAB’s office in the same bags it had been gathered.

One year ago several lawyers and former prisoners were arrested on an operation dubbed “Jaque” by Spanish Security forces. This operation seems to have been dubbed “Mate” (Jaque-Mate, or Checkmate).

Protests were called all around the Basque Country on Monday and Tuesday of this week. Social Media took #JeSuisBasque and #abokatuakLibre as the main hashtags, which were trending topics for the whole day across the Spanish state.

Originally published by Argia

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